Summer sure goes fast! (All of July and early August)

Going to Girl's camp was such a great experience!  It was my first night ever being away from kids since Kai was born and it was so nice to just have girl time.  I would have stayed the whole week of camp if I could have!  It was nice to come home to a clean house and to see the kids, though. And I was super tired because I could not sleep for the life of me out there in that tent.  I heard coyotes howling and our tent backed right up to the woods.  The next morning we were told a bear had been hanging out overnight.  So, while I would have loved more time away, it was nice to be a bed without a bear nearby!

After camp we had about 3 weeks before Kristi's family arrived for a visit.  Somehow we kept ourselves busy!

Working on measuring with our cooking class

Hiking the 7 Bridges trail with friends from the ward
This was a great hike and I'd love to do it again!  There were actually 7 bridges to cross and it was a little less than 3 miles round trip.  This particular day, though, the hike was a bit traumatic for me as I was hiking with a new family in the ward and the mom had a baby on her back and took two serious falls.  And her sweet 3 year old who walked the whole way fell and busted his nose.  At the end I ended up carrying him the last quarter mile and he fell asleep in my arms (blood smeared all over his face).  I need to redo the hike and have a good experience!

Bree with her friends Wally and Eleanor (they are twins who are about 8 months older than her)

Bree at bridge 7!  Wally and Eleanor turned back at bridge 4 and so they asked us to take pictures of the rest of the bridges so I have a lot of pictures of Bree on a bridge!

bridge 5 on the way back down the trail

#719rocks took off this summer!  Finn found this awesome painted rock in the Target parking lot on 7/11 day

This was our first year actually going to 7/11 on 7/11.  My kids LOVED it!

We took an amazing trip to the zoo where we decided to do something we rarely do and that is try to hit some of the shows/training sessions with the animals.  The bird show is right at the front of the park so we waited for about 10 minutes after we got to the zoo for the exhibition.  That put us near the front of the crowd and she told us to pay attention because if you could answer a question at the end you could help her out.  So, when the questions came out, I leaned over and helped Kai with an answer and he got called on and was right!  He got the chance to actually go into the bird enclosure and feed them.  It was a very neat experience!

The vultures saw it was food time and came down for their fresh meat.  The keeper gave Kai a plastic glove to through out dead mouse meat!  Yuck!

Next we made our way to the goat demonstration and while we waited all of the kids had to have a turn on the goat statue.

After the Rocky Mountain goat demonstration we made our way to the regular goats where we got to go in and pet them.  But while we were there Finn saw that his favorite bird was out.  This is Mister and Finn just adores this parrot because he talked to him when he walked by him one time a couple of years ago.  Finn was thrilled to see Mister out and about visiting people.

From there we headed to the reptile house and Bree got to touch a bearded dragon.  At this point we stopped for lunch and it had started raining.  And then it started pouring.  We decided to end our zoo trip to finish another day and made our way through the downpour to our car.  We were dripping wet!

The cousins arrived on July 19th and the next morning we set out on a hike.  We took them to Spruce Mountain Open Space.

These two girls had a great time!

All of the cousins made it up!

On Friday the 21st Uncle Erik had a meeting in Fort Collins and he took the older cousins so the younger ones stayed behind to play.  We took them to the Mining Museum and we spent a lot of time panning for gold.

We also took the tour so the kids could see the machines turned on.

At the end of the tour is one of the shafts built to help rescue the Chilean miners that were trapped in 2010.  This is Finn inside the shaft.

Kai in the shaft

On Saturday the 22nd we took them to visit one of our favorite parks and rec centers--the Miller Activity Complex in Castle Rock.  We spent a good amount of time there and managed to play outside and inside.  We all had a great time!

This group is experiencing some interesting dynamics these days.  I still have no idea how to deal with these boys and I'm sure they are going to keep us on our toes for years to come.  But I also am sure that one day they won't need us adults to help mediate!

Kai went down the water slide for the first time ever and was so excited.  He loved it and I was so incredibly proud of him!

These two had a blast in the "whirlpool" (a small section of the pool with a strong circular current)

Finn is my only kid not in swim lessons right now and he is terrified of the water.  He used to love it and had a great time at pools but is going through a tough period.  I'm hoping we turn a corner soon!

Aunt Kristi was out of the pool for the day as she was still recovering from a brown recluse bite 3 weeks earlier.  So, Kai was waving hi!

That day we had a late lunch/early dinner at Chick Fil-A and then decided to call our trip to Orange Leaf "dinner".  

The Perrins family left on Sunday the 23rd and then we spent the week kind of cleaning and recovering.  On Friday the 28th Kai took his survival ready test at his swim lesson.  For the test he had to jump in fully clothed (including shoes), pop up to a back float and then safely get out of the pool.  He did it!  I was so proud of him!  This was 14 months in the making and involved a lot of hard work on his part.  He has come a long way with his comfort level in the water but also with learning to cope with his anxiety and to work hard and face his fears.  He is learning to do hard things and that's what I like most about swim lessons for him.  It's been great!

On Sunday the 30th the cousins came back!  They were driving back home from Utah and so the stopped for another day to play.  On the 31st we took them to Fox Run park for a short walk, time at the playground, and feeding the fishes.  

Silly group shot of all of the cousins--Ethan (17), Owen (10), Maci (4), Bree (4), Bryn (14), Finn (7), Isaac (7), and Kai (10)

That night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner as our last hurrah.  While we were waiting for a table the kids enjoyed playing on this super large hopscotch that someone had drawn outside of the restaurant.

It was kids' night which meant that all of the kids got ice cream at the end of the meal.

On Saturday August 5th the local gymnastics and dance center had an open house.  I took Bree and Finn and they had a blast.  I would have taken more pictures if my phone hadn't of died, but at least I got these of Bree having a blast on a bouncehouse.

At the open house we snagged a used leotard for her dance class this fall.  It was perfect and only $5.  Win win!  Of course she had to try it on when we got home!